A shortlist of six images have been announced for this year’s World Press Photo of the Year, and three photographers shortlisted for a new award that celebrates visual storytelling – the World Press Story of the Year.

The six images shortlisted for World Press Photo of the Year are: Victims of an Alleged Gas Attack Receive Treatment in Eastern Ghouta by Mohammed Badra (Syria); Almajiri Boy by Marco Gualazzini (Italy); Being Pregnant After FARC Child-Bearing Ban by Catalina Martin-Chico (France/Spain); Covering the Disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi by Chris McGrath (Australia); Crying Girl on the Border by John Moore (United States); and Akashinga – the Brave Ones by Brent Stirton (South Africa).

The three nominees for the World Press Story of the Year are Marco Gualazzini (Italy), Pieter Ten Hoopen (Netherlands/Sweden), and Lorenzo Tugnoli (Italy) – making Gualazzini the first photographer to have been nominated for both the World Press Photo of the Year and the World Press Story of the Year.

When Raphaela Rosella was a teenager, her twin sister became pregnant. “I called her a slut and told her to get an abortion because I thought she could have a better life,” says the Australian photographer, who is now 27 and took part in last year’s Joop Swart Masterclass. “But what is a better life? On reflection, I realised my reaction framed my sister’s pregnancy as a social problem. Instead of supporting her choice, I assumed that becoming a mother at a young age was irresponsible and irrational. Most public discourses do not consider that becoming a mother at a young age could ever be a rational choice,” she explains. Years later, after spending time with a young, homeless mother, pregnant with her third child, Rosella was inspired to start the evocatively titled project, You didn’t take away my future, you gave me a new one. Following mothers Tammara, Nunjul and Rowrow, it proposes that teenage pregnancies aren’t necessarily ‘irrational’ or ‘irresponsible’, and can have positive outcomes. “Tammara was part of my previous project …